Chiefs Hire Tommy Brasher to Coach Defensive Line

Team looks to produce more defensive pressure up front in 2013

Coach Andy Reid’s staff is nearing completion and came once step closer on Friday, when the team announced Tommy Brasher as its defensive line coach.

NFL experience is priceless in the coaching profession and Brasher has more than his share of it, entering his 25th year in the league. He joins the Chiefs after working on coach Reid’s staff in 2012, his ninth season and third assignment with the Eagles.

To say the Chiefs added toughness and courage by hiring Brasher is a gross understatement. Throughout most of 2001, Brasher battled a cancerous tumor in his parotid gland (one of the salivary glands) and on October 16, he underwent a six-hour surgery to have it removed. That was just the beginning.

Three weeks later, Brasher underwent another procedure, which removed 67 lymph nodes from his neck and shoulder. He missed just five days of work and not one snap of football on game day.

His battle with cancer earned him the Ed Block Courage Award in 2001. Despite the award being given annually to one player from each NFL team, Brasher became just the third special non-player recipient of the prestigious honor.

In 2004, Brasher tutored the Eagles defensive linemen, who responded with 32 of the Eagles 47 sacks (second in the NFL). Both Corey Simon and Hugh Douglas became Pro Bowl players under coach Brasher.

During one of his nine seasons with the Eagles (1985), Brasher coached Hall of Fame DE Reggie White (in his rookie season), who along with teammate DE Greg Brown, each notched 13 sacks apiece.

Kansas City’s defense produced 27 sacks in 2012. The goal is for the Chiefs defensive front to utilize Brasher’s knowledge and experience to create greater sack opportunities in 2013.

An all-conference selection himself as a linebacker at Arkansas from 1962-63, Brasher was a college teammate of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and former Dolphins and Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson.